Then and Then
by FluffDucklings
Summary: The SPK after Kira, before they disbanded.
1. Chapter 1

So it's been like a year since I've written anything. I got into this really depressive slump that I'm still in, but I've been wanting to write for a long time, but I could never just get the words to leave my head. And I recently got back into DN after like five years! Nothings really changed that I can tell, with the fandom at least. It's still a slow going place to be.

This may end up as a few short things written mostly about/around the SPK since they're my fav characters. Hope you enjoy!

Seriously, Rester doesn't have the fan-base that he deserves.

Disclaimer, I own no rights.

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Commander Rester, dubbed so temporarily by his underage employer, read the final information for the case of an international bank heist to their informant. The case was solved and their middle man would present the case to the French government as his own findings to complete the investigation and make the necessary arrests. Such was the way when one called in the greatest detective in the world.

Lidner and Gevanni were already relaxing after pulling nearly seventy hours of research and screen-staring to pull off the case. Gevanni, slouched in a desk chair, was skimming through the vast array of take-out menus that had been accumulated by him and Lidner and Rester. It looked like he was favoring the curry house down the road.

On his way to file his papers, Rester rounded the train set chugging on the floor in an infinite loop around the desk pulled to the middle of the room. Miniature stations were set at four different points and Rester made extra careful to not step on them. The first and last time that he had done that, he'd come in the next day to his desk full of hundreds of hours worth of surveillance work to be done. Rester would not make the same mistake twice.

"Do you think Near would want anything?" Gevanni said suddenly, as Rester was fingering through the filing cabinet.

"You call it in and I'll get it," Lidner volunteered.

"Get him something mild," Rester replied. "I'll check on him in a minute. Get me the Thai Green."

"Something spicy for me!" Lidner commanded. "And fork over your share. I'm not covering for you again. You still owe me for drinks."

Rester shook his head as he headed on out the screen room and down the hall towards where Near was going over a few potential cases.

Roger was by the door, at a desk and reading a book with a blank cover and type that was too small for Rester to read from where he was. He nodded at the old man and stepped towards his boss.

"I've finished briefing the informant and filed the case. The others are ordering dinner to celebrate a good job. I told them to get you something mild. I hope that's alright with you."

From the floor, Near lifted his head from the papers scattered around him, but didn't turn around to face his most loyal employee. "That's quite alright." He dropped his head once again, leaning on his arm and curling his legs a bit more as he lay on his side. Near pushed one paper away and began reading the one underneath it. "Give Gevanni and Lidner my thanks. You as well, Commander Rester. You did well in our last case."

"Well, it really was your work that pulled us through, sir." Rester admitted, shrugging one shoulder.

"Be that as it may, our work is not necessarily over. I have a new case lined up, but I will allow for a night of rest and will debrief everyone in the morning."

"I'll let them know."

"That will be all."

Rester hummed and turned to leave again, nodding toward Roger and promising him dinner as well.


	2. Chapter 2

Don't own DN

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Rester's first impression of Wammy's House was rather lackluster. Having known two of the top alumni to have graduated from the institute, Rester had had a more or less grey vision of a nondescript orphanage. Something like out of the Matrix, where the red pill and the blue one were presented to you and one led to this new world of opportunity and power while the other let you slip back into a life of late bills and Chinese take-out. But instead of the military-like academy Rester had been imagining since first meeting his boss, Wammy's House was warm and looked inviting. Children were playing in the front garden, staff stationed about, and the whole building stood tall and proudly kept, painted in warm colours behind them.

Most everyone in the garden stopped what they were doing to stare as the limo stopped in front of the gates. Roger took out a remote from the glove compartment and pressed one of the few buttons. The gates began to retract and soon, the small car was pulling into the small drive to the left of the orphanage and into a garage. The gates closed behind them.

As soon as the car was parked and its passengers began to disembark, a young woman with a frazzled look about her hurried in through a white door to the right and began explaining rapidly to Roger that some child or another had started up trouble again and he was needed right that minute.

"I'm sorry, Near, but you understand. Why don't you introduce Mr. Rester to Wammy's," Roger said and then scurried after the harried woman who was now close to tears.

Rester watched as the old man slipped past the door and he and his boss were left to their own wits.

"I presume you would like to get settled, Commander Rester?" Near ventured. His finger was already in his hair, twirling a few locks by his ear. "I'll show you to the room you will be staying in."

"That would be best, sir. Just let me," Rester opened up the car again and picked up his and Near's luggage. There wasn't much of either.

"All the children reside in the left wing, on the second floor. The guest rooms are beside them, on the right. This way."

Walking behind Near in the hallway that was the same cream colour as the brick on the outside, Rester got his first real glimpse at what Near may have been like before Kira. What had it been like to grow up in a place like this? Was it nice? Were the employees kind? Did the children get along? Or did they all pit themselves against each other like Mello and Near had?

The rooms that Near showed him were small, just large enough for a full bed and a wardrobe and a desk. The walls were blank and not even a decorate picture hung on them. Sheer curtains were pulled back, but that was the extent of the personality of the room. There was not even a desk lamp.

"I will be in the room next door," Near said, taking his own bag and leaving. His briskness was not much of a shock to Rester, he'd known the young man for a handful of years now so he was used to his abrupt nature. Instead, Rester began unpacking and putting his clothes into the wardrobe. There wasn't much, just a few changes of clothes to get him through a few days before he would need to do laundry. He would need to ask Near or perhaps Roger where he could do that.

In just a few minutes, Rester was already standing awkwardly in his room, taking in the impersonal cleanliness of it, before deciding to check on Near. There wasn't much for him to do at the moment anyways, since they were just on a break between cases, and idle hands made Rester cagey. Roger had had to come back to Wammy's to complete some mysterious duties that he was tight-lipped about and had suggested Near to come with him to see his old home once again. Rester had come along by Near's request.

The door to the left of his was open just a hair, but Rester could hear a voice talking behind it and he assumed this was Near's room. Just to be polite, he knocked before entering.

There was a young woman there, about Near's age and she was pulling on a lock of Near's hair, her hip cocked and a pout on her face. Her hair was pulled up into a bun and Rester could see that her clothes were littered with paint splotches as were her hands and forearms.

"You don't think, do you!" She was saying. She'd startled at Rester's entrance, but had promptly ignored him in favor of interrogating or possibly scolding Near. "All three of you just up and vanished! I know I wasn't important to you guys, but I've worried about you since you left!" She tugged on Near's hair again, yanking his head towards her and huffing. "Not even a letter to tell me you were alive! Is Wammy's just below you now? Are we not good enough for Near now that he's L?"

"Um," Rester cleared his throat and his boss looked up through his bangs at him. He was scowling. "Near?"

"And who's this? Since when did Roger let in civilians? Just because Kira is gone doesn't mean you can compromise this place Near!" The girls hands were now both fisted and at her hips.

"Actually, Linda," Near said, yanking on his own hair and tilting his head away from her just so. "This is Commander Rester and he will be taking over as Wammy, should he agree to accept the position." He scowled at her again.

Linda seemed shocked, just as Rester felt. Wammy? Rester as Wammy? Was he even qualified? Of course he was, Near wouldn't just offer a job as important as that to just any Joe. "Wammy?!"

"Sir, this is why we are here, correct?" Rester asked before Linda could start up any more of her hair pulling. "Is this what Roger was so adamant about?"

"It would seem so. I had been planning on letting you get to know this place, before I asked this of you. But it would seem that Linda had other plans."


End file.
